Making or selling a drug derived from opium, like heroin or fentanyl, would carry a tougher penalty in Michigan under bills that passed in the state House of Representatives Wednesday.

Current laws treat opiates and their synthetic counterparts, opioids, similar to cocaine and other narcotics considered highly dangerous and addictive.

That means, depending on the amount, possession with the intent to deliver could carry maximum prison sentences from 20 years to life. Some optional fines could also come into play.

The bills passed Wednesday would raise some of those maximum sentences, require fines in some cases, and set new mandatory minimum sentences.

Rep. Sarah Lightner (R-Springport) co-sponsors the bills. She said this is one of the issues where she believes mandatory minimums are necessary to interrupt the work of producers and dealers.

“They need to be off the street for a certain amount of time. So anywhere from, you know, five to 15 years is a lot of time that will disrupt the chain, and hopefully we see that impact in our communities,” Lightner told reporters after the vote.

The bills got some bipartisan support, passing by margins of 66-40 and 65-41 in a chamber where Republicans only have a six-vote majority.

Still, many Democratic opponents to the bills said the legislation would amount to another step in a failed war on drugs.

Representative John Fitzgerald (D-Wyoming) said stronger sentences wouldn’t address root causes of drug abuse and its impact on communities.

“The emotion that comes into an issue like this does not mean that we just drop the hammer and leave everyone else in the dust in the wake of what is going on,” Fitzgerald said to reporters.

Fitzgerald and his colleagues agreed the state needs to instead continue investing in programs aimed at reducing addiction and crime while providing more community resources.

Representative Amos O’Neal (D-Saginaw) said those programs are working, comparing their progress to trying to turn a big ship that moves slowly.

“The evidence that we’ve seen here in Michigan, the rudder and the turn is happening. Right here in Michigan, such as education and skill-building opportunities, substance abuse treatment programs, and objective decision-making, and effective support for reentry. It’s working. Evidence-based programs have safely reduced, here in Michigan, the prison population,” O’Neal said during a floor speech.

He said stronger penalties would just worsen high incarceration rates that already disproportionately affect Black and Brown residents.

Supporters of the legislation, however, argued back that overdose deaths happen regardless of a person’s background.

Representative Ann Bollin (R-Brighton), another package co-sponsor, said the stronger sentences need to happen in addition to the other work the state is doing. She argued the bills go after drug traffickers, not users.

“We must do something to stop the penetration of the fatal drugs throughout our society. The real perpetrators, the dealers, the manufacturers, walk away with money in their pockets and no awareness at all the depth of grief realized by these families and neighbors, the victims’ families,” Bollin said from the House floor.

Package opponents say there are not enough guardrails to ensure that non-dealers don’t get caught up in the punishment system.

The legislation next goes to the state Senate for more consideration.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer continued to highlight road funding, housing, and innovation as three main priorities during a speech at the Grand Rapids Chamber Monday.

Whitmer has proposed a roads plan that involves putting all taxes on gas sales toward roads, and raising some new revenue from larger companies and the marijuana industry.

Meanwhile, a competing House Republican-led plan agrees on the gas tax front, though it would find additional money for roads by scaling back proposed using savings from scaling back business incentive programs, like one known as the SOAR Fund.

Whitmer said she’s open to ideas, but the state can’t afford to entirely cut programs meant to bring in business.

“Maybe it doesn’t look exactly like the SOAR going forward. Maybe they’ve got additional thoughts about ways that we could sharpen our toolkit. But what we can’t do is unilaterally drop all the tools and think that we’re going to be able to go toe to toe with states that are trying to steal companies that are already here,” Whitmer told reporters her speech.

Whitmer said talks are ongoing over whether Democrats should introduce bills for their competing vision, or if lawmakers need to get to a point where they have their own policy goals and negotiate from there using the House bills as a jumping–off point.

Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks (D-Grand Rapids) said it’s time for all sides to come together to hammer out details.

“We are eager to start serious negotiations about the budget and about the road funding concepts that are out there. The plans are great, but if they’re not bicameral — Not just bipartisan, but bicameral and bipartisan — it won’t succeed,” Brinks said.

Brinks said negotiations over roads need to happen side by side with budget discussions. She acknowledged the next state budget will likely be smaller than in recent years, while Whitmer also called for some belt-tightening during her speech. Much of that is due to fewer federal COVID-19 pandemic aid dollars being left.

As far as housing goes, Whitmer’s plan involves using a state agency to ensure more affordable housing units get built. She also wants lawmakers to fund a program that re-purposes former industrial sites for residential or commercial uses.

“I have told all the legislative leadership where we spend money, whether it’s in the budget or it’s elsewhere, it’s got to be negotiated with the budget. And so, it is my hope that we are able to secure additional longevity in the brownfield redevelopment funds,” she told reporters.

Whitmer said she’s not ready to say how much money she expects lawmakers to put into the Transformational Brownfield Plans program.

Monday’s speech was the fourth in a series of speeches her team is broadly referring to as the Road Ahead. Earlier talks include ones in Detroit given in January and earlier this month, and in Washington D.C.

A ballot question aimed at ensuring only U.S. citizens are voting in Michigan elections inched a step closer to gathering signatures Friday.

The measure would amend Michigan’s constitution to require residents to show proof of citizenship when signing up to vote. Currently, residents must check a box attesting to their citizenship while applying.

The amendment would also have the Michigan Secretary of State go through the voter rolls and ensure everyone listed is a citizen. Beyond that, it would get rid of a way for people without photo IDs to vote by signing a legal document at the polls.

A state elections board verified that the petition form and summary language were in order Friday. Lawyer Charlie Spies represented the Protect Voters’ Rights campaign at Friday’s Board of State Canvassers meeting.

“It’s a common sense proposal to add two things. One is photo ID, and the second is verification of citizenship. That is core to the voting rules of America,” Spies said after the meeting.

Despite current laws already requiring people to provide proof of residency documents when signing up to vote and to affirm their citizenship under penalty of perjury, state officials say over a dozen non-citizens may have voted last year.

Officials said that’s about three ten-thousandths of a percentage point in the state’s presidential election and that they’re conducting thorough reviews more often now to catch any others before they vote.

During the drawn-out meeting on Friday, however, opponents of the measure voiced their concerns.

Attorney Mark Brewer represents a group organizing against the proposed constitutional amendment. He said the summary language needed to say that the change would create new requirements for voters.

“New qualifications to the vote would be imposed. Undefined documentary proof of citizenship, photo ID, etc. Which will result in citizens of Michigan who are eligible to vote and eligible to register being denied those rights,” Brewer said during public comment.

Supporters of the campaign denied that it would create any undue burdens for voters. They pointed to language within it that would help people without photo IDs or other means of proving their citizenship pay for one with state money.

The final summary language approved by the canvassing board Friday included wording that the amendment would add a “requirement to verify citizenship by showing a birth certificate, passport, and/or other documents for voter registration.”

Other critics of the amendment, including some members of the bipartisan canvassing board, feared it could prevent people from registering online or easily getting an absentee ballot.

Strategist Fred Wszolek, who is also working on the ballot campaign, dismissed those concerns. He said the solution could be as simple as having people upload copies of their documents.

“This is easy to do. But what we shouldn’t do is, we shouldn’t put all that in a whole 6,000-word amendment that goes into the constitution. Leave the details to the Legislature. They’re in the sausage-making business. The constitution is about bigger ideas,” Wszolek told reporters.

Meanwhile, board member Mary Ellen Gurewitz said she worried about what would happen if people can’t quickly access things like birth certificates or passports, or if the secretary of state isn’t able to quickly use federal resources to check the citizenship of existing voters.

“I’m really troubled by the idea that people who have perhaps been voting for decades are going to find that the secretary of state perhaps has failed in his or her obligation and therefore the person loses the right to vote,” Gurewitz said.

Overall, the state canvassers meeting drew dozens of attendees. The fight over amendment summary mattered for a couple key reasons.

For one, the summary language is what voters will see when they decide whether to sign the petition. But also, having that board-approved summary helps shield the petition from future lawsuits that could claim its wording or form were misleading.

On the topic of signature gathering, Wszolek said he imagines the campaign to start canvassing once the weather becomes more consistently nice. He said signature collection will go much smoother this time than in 2022 when another voter ID campaign failed to make the ballot.

“We’re getting a much earlier start, we’re not competing with nine other constitutional amendments or legislative initiatives at the same time. We’re not going to have a problem getting signatures,” Wszolek said.

This time, the campaign will need to gather over 100,000 more signatures than that previous effort because of high voter turn around and the decision to go for a constitutional amendment this time. To do so, Wszolek said he anticipates using a mix of paid and unpaid circulators.

While signatures aren’t the only way the amendment could make the ballot, they’re the most likely path.

Republican lawmakers are also trying to place the effort on the ballot through a resolution. But it’s unlikely there’s enough support in both the House and Senate to do that.

A few hundred people rallied outside a veterans hospital in Ann Arbor this weekend to protest federal cuts to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

President Donald Trump has announced plans to lay off staff, tried to void some federal union contracts, and is calling telehealth workers back into offices that may not have space for them.

State Representative Joe Tate (D-Detroit), a marine corps veteran, said he attended Saturday’s protest as someone who has relied on the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System himself. Tate said it makes him “sick” to see resources scaled back, warning that could bring dire consequences.

“You have these effects where you’re going to put people in the ground, veterans in the ground, if some of these veterans don’t get the services they need,” Tate said.

Read more: 10 year Marine Corps veteran terminated from Veterans Affairs in Ann Arbor

Tate and others at the protest frequently brought up threats to funding for the 2022 PACT Act, which aims to help veterans exposed to toxic chemicals via risks like burn pits or Agent Orange, as a top concern.

Earlier this month, Trump signed a spending bill that cuts money for the Act as part of a plan to avoid a government shutdown that some Senate Democrats also eventually backed.

Army veteran Justin Coates attended Saturday’s rally carrying an American flag and a megaphone. He said he slept next to a burn pit during his first tour of duty.

“We used to throw like lithium batteries into it and trash and human waste and stuff like that. I slept next to it night, and we used to joke about how we were all going to die of cancer in a few years. So, when the PACT Act was passed, that was great. We were all excited about that. I was able to get on the registry. I told all my friends about it, all the guys in my squad,” Coates said.

He worries what he and his fellow veterans went through will be forgotten. He said he’s lost more friends to suicide than combat.

“Hearing about the cuts to the veteran crisis line, hearing about veteran crisis-line operators having to operate from their cars or in open air cubicles or what have you, just seeing the absolute lack of care for veterans under the guise of increasing efficiency, it’s frankly insulting to everyone’s intelligence,” Coates said.

Read more: How will cuts to the VA and its services impact veterans?

Leadership at the VA, however, has vehemently denied the changes made will translate to cuts to veterans services. In a video response to concerns posted on February 13, VA Secretary Doug Collins dismissed stories about veterans benefits being cut as “hypotheticals” being circulated in the media.

“Reality is, veterans benefits aren’t getting cut,” Collins said. “In fact, we’re actually giving and improving services.”

Collins said the department is running more efficiently and clearing cases sooner.

Since posting that video, Collins has defended reported plans to let go 80,000 staff from the VA. That’s as the department works with billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Governmental Efficiency, or D.O.G.E.

A handful of union leaders and elected officials, including Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist, and U.S. Representatives Rashida Tlaib (D-MI 12) and Debbie Dingell (D-MI 6) criticized the Trump Administrations’ decisions at Saturday’s rally.

Dingell said she fears veterans are getting caught up in a “meat cleaver” being taken to several departments. She said she worried about losing progress, noting both Democratic and Republican administrations have struggled to take care of soldiers after they serve.

“We have to honor our commitment and keep working to go forward. And when you see this many people understanding that we’ve got a moral responsibility (to those) who fought to keep us free, that’s what they’re out here for, fighting for those veterans,” Dingell said.

Michigan has around 479,000 veterans, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

A Republican-backed plan to fund road repairs in Michigan could be voted out of a state House committee Tuesday.

The proposal involves removing the 6% sales tax currently charged on gas sales and replacing it with a higher fuel tax that would go toward road repairs. The bill package sponsors say consumers wouldn’t see any difference in how much they pay.

The bills would also send around $2.2 billion in corporate income tax revenue to roads as well.

State Rep. Pat Outman (R-Six Lakes) chairs the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. He said he plans to add another bill to the package that would create a neighborhood road fund to make sure side streets don’t get forgotten.

“It’s a fund specifically for certain streets that might not be federally aid eligible or ones that are most neglected that usually don’t get the adequate resources to it,” Outman said Monday.

Outman said the fund would be a good deal for smaller units of government like townships since they wouldn’t necessarily have to match what county road departments spend on road projects.

While House Republicans are pushing forward with their road funding plan, Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is promoting her own.

Like Republicans, Whitmer has also suggested using all taxes collected at the gas pump for road repairs. But she’s also looking to have large companies and the marijuana industry pay more to help with roads too.

Outman said a compromise is still a ways out.

“The bottom line is the vast majority of her money is generated through new revenue sources. And then the vast majority of ours is through existing revenue and just rather reprioritizing some existing funding,” Outman said.

Some concerns have arisen about what would happen to school funding under the proposals, given that it depends largely on sales tax revenue that would no longer be collected on gas.

Republicans say they’ve answered that concern by dedicating an extra $775 million to the School Aid Fund.

The Ontario government announced it’s charging an extra 25% on all electricity exports to the U.S. Monday.

The provincial government says that’ll impact 1.5 million homes spread across Michigan, Minnesota, and New York. Ontario said that could cost up to $400,000 each day the surcharge is in place, blaming tariffs from the Trump Administration for the move.

Despite Ontario naming Michigan in its announcement, state regulators expect the move could more likely be felt on a regional scale.

“While the vast majority of Michigan’s electricity is either produced by the electric utilities or purchased under long-term power contracts, the imposition of these tariffs could have some impact on prices in the regional energy markets, though the ultimate impact on Michigan customers is likely to be small,” a written statement from the Michigan Public Service Commission read.

The agency cast doubt on whether any utilities in the state actually purchase electricity from Canada to begin with.

In a written statement, DTE Energy, one of the state’s largest utility companies, said it was prepared to mitigate any pricing concerns.

“DTE continues to monitor the evolving tariff policies with Canada.We self-generate the majority of electricity required to serve our customers’ needs, with the small amount that we do purchase coming from the United States.” DTE Energy said.

The Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) said “the vast majority” of the state’s electricity is produced by the state’s utilities themselves or through long term contracts.

The MPSC is warning, however, that Michigan’s electric grid is tied to several other states and one Canadian province, Manitoba. It said Michigan’s regional operator and Ontario’s regional operator coordinate that flow of electricity.

“Any action to limit or disrupt these flows would remove a layer of protection and make all of us – Canadians and Americans alike – more vulnerable to grid-scale outages,” the MSPC statement said.

Brandon D. Morris is with the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, which operates Michigan’s electric grid.

“MISO is still reviewing Ontario’s recent decision to apply an export tax on electricity, which will be collected on the Canadian side of the border,” Morris said in a statement.

The Michigan House voted Tuesday to keep lawmakers from signing non-disclosure agreements.

The practice has come under scrutiny in recent years as some lawmakers and state officials have signed NDAs as part of talks to bring some economic development projects. That includes for a General Motors battery plant that spurred the creation of the often-criticized Strategic Outreach and Attraction Reserve (SOAR) Fund.

State Rep. Steve Carra (R-Three Rivers) co-sponsored the bipartisan bills. He said public servants shouldn’t be signing NDAs, especially for business incentives.

“They’re using tax dollars to fund these projects. And then the idea that we as legislators would be complicit in that process and signing secrecy pacts, saying we cannot disclose the conversations we’ve had is a reckless form of governance.”

The bills would apply to lawmakers and their staff acting in their official capacities.

Despite the criticism, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, which took the lead in talks over some of the projects that have involved NDAs, defended the practice.

“It is important to note that in our experience, those seeking to make a significant investment are increasingly requiring NDAs, given the financial and proprietary information being shared. Further, no decisions are made until an investment opportunity is voted on by the bipartisan and bicameral appointees of Michigan Strategic Fund board in a public setting,” MEDC spokesperson Otie McKinley said in a written statement.

That feeling was shared by some of the lawmakers who voted against the bills.

Opponents to the bills argue NDAs are a tool that keeps Michigan competitive economically and that they stop lawmakers from insider trading when they know something is coming.

Rep. Phil Skaggs (D-East Grand Rapids) was among the lawmakers who voted against the bills.

“Non-disclosure agreements are critical for competitiveness, our ability to attract new jobs, cutting edge technology. And we should be involved in far more serious ethics issues than what I think here is largely a nothing burger,” Skaggs said.

Sponsors of the bills, including Rep. Dylan Wegela (D-Inkster) rejected the argument, however, that NDAs were necessary to bring business to Michigan.

“I think if corporations want public tax dollars, they should do their business in public. And that should be part of the discussion. Right? We’re talking about hundreds of millions of dollars going to multimillion dollar and multibillion dollar corporations,” Wegela said.

Lawmakers on both sides of the argument, however, have said they want the House to take up Senate-passed bills that would expand the Freedom of Information Act. Republican House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Twp) has said those bills aren’t a priority for him.

Ahead of voting in the House Tuesday, Democratic lawmakers unsuccessfully tried to tie the NDA legislation to the FOIA bills so one couldn’t become law without the other.

The NDA bills still passed with wide bipartisan support, by margins of 80-28 and 91-17.

The legislation now heads to the state Senate.

A bill to change Michigan’s minimum wage law ahead of it taking effect passed the state Legislature Wednesday. The law is scheduled to take effect Friday.

If left unchanged, the law would gradually raise the minimum wage for both tipped and non-tipped workers until both are making the same amount by 2030.

The bill would speed up raises for non-tipped workers so they get to $15 an hour by 2027 instead of just coming close in 2028 with a planned $14.97 minimum wage.

But the bill would also slow down gradual raises for people who get tips. It would cap that minimum wage for tipped workers, like bartenders and servers, at half of what everyone else makes.

Employers would still be responsible for covering the gap if tips don’t make up the difference.

Rep. Bill G. Schuette (R-Midland) said that’s a necessary compromise to protect businesses.

“It’s not perfect, but it is an action, an immediate action that’s going to help preserve our tip credit and the tip wage system. And I think that’s vital in here to the restaurant industry,” Schuette said after the House vote Wednesday.

The bill is now cleared to head to the governor to receive her signature. But, for it to go into place by Friday’s deadline, it would need the Senate to vote for it to take effect immediately. That would require a supermajority in the Democratic-controlled chamber.

Republicans and hospitality industry groups say restaurants and bars could go out of business if they become responsible for covering a server’s entire base pay. Some Democrats in both the House and Senate also voted in favor of the bill.

But other Democrats say lawmakers shouldn’t touch the petition-initiated minimum WAGE law before it takes effect Friday.

That’s especially after lawmakers, in 2018, adopted the initiative before it could go to the ballot and watered it down, in a move known as “adopt and amend.” It led to a court challenge that eventually set the Feb. 21 deadline to begin with.

One Fair Wage, the group behind the petition, sent out a press release Tuesday that argued passing the bill would be illegal under the court ruling. It included an open letter from University of Michigan law professor Samuel Bagenstos.

“The Legislature’s original adopt-and-amend constitutional violation has meant that the Wage Act and Earned Sick Leave Act have been in suspended animation for years and have still not gone into effect. For the Legislature to amend these initiatives now, before letting them take effect, would be to once again ‘sidestep the people’s reserved power,’ Bagenstos wrote, referencing another law also planned to take effect Friday.

That law guarantees all non-federal workers in Michigan the right to at least some paid time off. How much that would be depends on how many hours they work and the size of their employer.

Business groups say wording in the law would create too much new paperwork for companies and not include enough accountability to make sure people don’t skip work without any warning.

House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Twp) said any compromise with Democrats needs to include exceptions for small businesses and seasonal workers, limit who can sue an employer, and include more accountability.

Hall also wants it to be more clear that businesses can offer the required sick time up front and not have to worry about doing the math to see how much sick time someone earns based on hours worked.

“I think we’re laying out things that we need to protect in order to do a deal here,” Hall told reporters during a press conference Wednesday.

Like with the minimum wage bill, however, some Democrats are promising opposition, saying people should be able to stay home if they’re sick, regardless of how many coworkers they have.

When asked what he’s hoping to get out of any compromise legislation, House Minority Leader Ranjeev Puri (D-Canton) said he’s just trying to watch out for Michigan workers.

“There’s been a very false choice presented where we have to pick between business and workers. And I don’t think that that is the reality of the situation here,” Puri told reporters.

The main sick leave policy bill is currently before the state Senate, which is expected to take up a vote on the measure Thursday in what could end up being a long session day.

The House would likely still need to agree to whatever compromise changes the Senate could introduce before the sick leave bill goes to the governor as well.

Both the sick leave and minimum wage bills are tie-barred together, meaning neither can take effect unless both become law.